Bruzhi (; ) is a village in Grodno District, Grodno Region, in western

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. It is administratively part of Adelsk

selsoviet A selsoviet (; , ; ) is the shortened name for Selsky soviet, i.e., rural council (; ; ). It has three closely related meanings: *The administration (''soviet (council), soviet'') of a certain rural area. *The territorial subdivision administered ...

and located close to the border with Poland. The Kuźnica-Bruzhi border crossing is located near the village. Klachki and Trubka are two villages nearby.

History

According to the 1921 census, Bruzgi had a population of 151, entirely

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

by nationality and Catholic by confession. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Bruzgi was occupied by the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1941, then by Nazi Germany until 1944, and then re-occupied by the Soviet Union afterwards. Between 1940 and 1959, the village served as the administrative center of Bruzgi rural council (''

''). Until 2002, it was part of Padlabyennye rural council.

21st century

In 2021, refugees, primarily Iraqi, entered the vicinity of Bruzgi, intending to depart from there to cross the Polish Border at Kuźnica. In response, the

Polish government The government of Poland takes the form of a Unitary state, unitary semi-presidential republic, semi-presidential Representative democracy, representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Poland, president is the head of state and t ...

declared a

state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state before, during, o ...

, stationing over 12,000 troops at the border. Politicians from Poland and the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

accused Belarusian President

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (also transliterated as Alyaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka; born 30 August 1954) is a Belarusian politician who has been the first and only president of Belarus since the office's establishment in 1994, making hi ...

of using the migrants as a form of "

hybrid warfare Hybrid warfare was defined by Frank Hoffman in 2007 as the emerging simultaneous use of multiple types of warfare by flexible and sophisticated adversaries who understand that successful conflict requires a variety of forms designed to fit the goa ...

" to destabilize Poland and other EU member countries.

References

{{Belarus-geo-stub Villages in Belarus Belarus–Poland border crossings Populated places in Grodno region Grodno district